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January 25, 2008

Oster bribery, conspiracy trial to begin Monday

PROVIDENCE — Former Lincoln town administrator Jonathan F. Oster’s trial on bribery and conspiracy charges will begin Monday. Lawyers for the state and the defendant agreed on the makeup of the jury this afternoon.

Asst. Atty. Gen. William Ferland and defense lawyer C. Leonard O’Brien culled out 15 potential jurors, including at least three Lincoln residents, during today’s morning session with Associate Justice Gilbert V. Indeglia. The process had begun Wednesday with jurors filling out questionnaires and the followed with the lawyers questioning randomly selected jurors on specifics yesterday. The questions usually centered on the potential juror’s attitudes toward the police, whether they would hold it against a defendant if he didn’t testify on his own behalf and their feelings about tape-recorded evidence.

The 12-woman, four man panel — twelve jurors and four alternates — was ordered to ignore news accounts and not discuss the case with anyone.

Oster is facing two counts of bribery and two counts of conspiracy dating back to his 2000-2002 tenure in office. The case was delayed for several years while pre-trial disputes over evidence, some of it gathered for the first time under the state’s wiretapping laws, were appealed to the state Supreme Court.

That appeal resulted in many of the tapes being thrown out because of they were not stored in accordance with state law and the judge’s orders.

Posted by Peter Phipps  at 4:04 PM | Permalink

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